The Top Draw in 2016
The St. Paul Saints easily drew the most fans to an independent league ballpark in 2016, when 47 of their 49 games at CHS Field had crowds announced at over the park's listed capacity of 7,210. Thus, the Saints -- and by a large amount -- averaged an indy league-best 8,438 per home opening, with the runner-up team trailing by 3,173 (the Long Island Ducks averaged 5,265).

'16 Teams: 1 New, 2 Through
The New Britain Bees, playing at New Britain Stadium in Connecticut, were the only new team and market in the five attendance-reporting independent leagues in 2016, which saw the departure of two established franchises: the Camden Riversharks, who were replaced by the Bees in the Atlantic League, and the Rockford Aviators, an Illinois-based team that was removed from the Frontier League.

Independent Leagues 2016 Attendance

There were eight independent leagues that played full seasons in 2016, but three of them (Empire, Pecos, United Shore) did not release attendance numbers. The five indy leagues that did had a combined 42 teams that collectively had tickets sales of 5,924,498 for 2,103 regular season game dates. The average announced crowd for them was 2,817.

For the 2016 season, the two worst drawing teams from 2015 in the American Association merged to become one team, as the Amarillo Thunderheads and Grand Prairie AirHogs became the Texas AirHogs. Scheduled to split their 50 home games between the stadiums in each Texas city, three venues were actually needed after a four-game series at Potter County Memorial Stadium had to be moved to nearby Wilder Park on the West Texas A&M University campus at the end of July, when rain left the field unplayable at the 67-year old stadium in Amarillo, where 21 games were played (two dates were doubleheaders, attendance was not counted for one other game) and tickets were sold for 18 dates. The Division II West Texas A&M Buffaloes played in Amarillo's stadium until their on-campus facility opened in Canyon in 2011, and five years later Wilder Park got to be a fill-in for the place it replaced, as the AirHogs played four games there from July 29-31, including a doubleheader for which attendance was not tallied on July 30. Finally, the Grand Prairie home for the Texas AirHogs hosted 25 games over 24 dates (there was one doubleheader) at AirHogs Stadium, also often know by its original name of QuikTrip Park. In all, paid attendance was 44,282 at the three ballparks, with the range being from 160 to 5,751 in Grand Prairie and the low to high being 100 and 6,221 in Amarillo. The two crowds that were counted at the 490-seat park in Canyon at West Texas A&M were 123 and 135. Averaged out, the per date attendance for the AirHogs was 1,006.